Coroner: January was busiest month of tenure

The first month of 2018 has been the busiest one Etowah County Coroner London Pearce has experienced since his appointment to the office in September 2016.

While the varied record-keeping methods of past coroners have not made it easy to compare numbers with previous years, Pearce said he feels certain it’s one of the busiest months ever.

The coroner’s office is called to record any deaths not attended by physicians — such as in a hospital, or by hospice.

During January, the coroner’s office responded on 34 deaths cases.

One traffic death was reported — an 81-year-old man, Bernice E. Busha, died Wednesday as a result of a single-vehicle crash on Cox Gap Road.

One of those deaths, Pearce said, was the apparent flu-related death Jan. 18 of Dr. Chris Bittner, an Etowah County man who practiced at Alexandria Family Dentistry.

In addition there were five fatal overdose deaths, five suicides and six deaths considered homicides. Five of those are murder cases; the sixth is the death of Christopher Shane McKinney, 39, of Gadsden, who died Jan. 24 after he was tased during an encounter with Etowah County deputies. Oxford police are investigating the incident.

Ironically, it was Etowah County Sheriff’s Officer personnel that investigated the death in 2006 of McKinney’s son, 5-year-old Geontae Glass-McKinney. The child was victim in a brutal murder — beaten and left to die by his mother’s boyfriend at a residence in the Shady Grove community. Kevin Andre Towles was tried, convicted and sentenced to die in connection with the boy’s death; he was granted a new trial, with the same outcome in 2015.

Pearce said an autopsy has been performed in McKinney’s death, but additional tests are being done to determine what caused his death.

The rest of the deaths were deemed to be from natural causes.

Pearce said typically, the coroner’s office averages 20 cases a month. Tragically, the number of fatal overdoses is not unusual.

“We probably get four or five a month,” Pearce said. In some of those cases, he said, the office is still waiting for confirmation from toxicology reports.

It is the murder rate for the month of January that is the most shocking. The crimes occurred all over: a domestic homicide on Scenic Drive in Gadsden; a double-murder in Attalla; a shooting death in Alabama City; and an attempted robbery-murder in East Gadsden.

Christopher Underwood, 33, was the victim of a homicide Jan. 26. Gadsden police responded to a 911 call in the 1100 block of Scenic Drive to a reported shooting. They found Underwood, suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Michelle J. Kennedy, 37, was arrested at the residence, charged with murder. She and the victim were said to be in a girlfriend/boyfriend relationship. She remains in jail on $200,000 bond.

Two men were found dead Jan. 24 in an apartment in the 800 block of Third Street SW (U.S. Highway 11) in Attalla.

The bodies of Joey Alan Walker, 59, and Johnny Earl Whisenant, 49, were found after the landlord at the property was doing a welfare check on the two residents and found blood in the doorway. He called police and the two men were found, their bodies covered up with clothing, Attalla Police Chief Dennis Walker said. By the time the bodies were found, the man who would be charged with capital murder in their deaths already was behind bars.

Joseph Randel Brown, 39, of Gadsden, was jailed about 10:30 a.m. Jan. 24 after Etowah County Deputy Victor Payne Jr. responded to a call at or near the 600 block of West Covington Avenue in Attalla and found him swimming, or perhaps bathing, in a creek there. He was taken in for public intoxication.

Sheriff Todd Entrekin said it’s believed that the murders occurred prior to the incident at the creek. The deputy who took Brown into custody had no idea that he allegedly had just killed two people.

Brown was charged with capital murder for the stabbing deaths of the two men, first-degree burglary and two counts of aggravated animal cruelty. According to court documents, he is accused of killing two dogs, a brown Chihuahua mix and a black Chihuahua mix, at the apartment. He remains in the Etowah County Detention Center with no bond.

Jan. 7, Gadsden police were called to a shooting in the 2800 block of Shahan Avenue.

The month’s first homicide was the shooting death Jan. 4 of Kevin Winston, 48, of Gadsden. Winston was in a car with other people in on Shahan Avenue when a man approached and shot him. Albert Peter “Lucky” Gargone, 59, has been charged with in Winston’s death. He is being held without bond in the Etowah County Detention Center.

He was taken into custody at a gas station by Attalla police not long after the shooting was reported.

The first murder of 2018 occurred Jan. 4. Aaron Joe “A.J.” Huff, 17, of Gadsden, died after he was shot during a meeting described in court as a set-up for a robbery.

Five teenagers have been charged with luring Huff to Starnes Park to buy marijuana, with plans to rob him instead. When Huff and others in the van in which he was a passenger grew suspicious of the people they met up with and tried to drive away, the suspects followed. Two men got out, and one of them shot into and at the van, striking Huff. He died at a local hospital.

Tyler Michael Abbott, 17, of Hanceville; Kalab Blake Whitworth, 16, of Gadsden; Jessie James Altman, 17, of Rainbow City; Lonterry Orlando Harrison, 17, of Gadsden; and Broderick Lawrence Pearson, 18, of Gadsden, were arrested in the days following the shooting. All are charged with capital murder and remain in the Etowah County Detention Center without bond.

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